


Nothing Other Than a Simple Boardgame

by apatternedfever



Category: Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Genre: Benefit Concert canon, Gen, at least when the Arbiter has his way, everything is chess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apatternedfever/pseuds/apatternedfever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Arbiter's life, from childhood to after Bangkok. <i>Really, it's a pity he can't be by a chessboard all the time.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Other Than a Simple Boardgame

**i. Pawn**  
It takes almost ten years to realize how strange it is to some people that he _likes_ moving. Grandfather doesn't understand how anyone could want anything but a stable home; but that's why Grandfather and Mama don't get along, so it's not too much of a surprise.

It's exciting, and nobody else seems to understand that. It's not like Mama would move him before he was ready to leave. Which he always is, because meeting people, talking to people, learning from people -- it's even more interesting when they're not all from the same place. And that's much better than staying put.

 

 **ii. Rook**  
For his thirteenth birthday, Grandfather buys him a chess set and promises to teach him how to play while they're in Greece. It's the first time since he can remember that they stay in one place for more than four months. He learns quickly; he can recite the basic rules by heart and he can even beat some of the younger players, but he isn't good at it. He can't manage the foresight; he doesn't know where he's going three moves down the road, while Grandfather knows how the game will end six or seven moves into it.

He loves the game, though, and that makes up for it.

 

 **iii. Knight**  
He's nineteen when he starts thinking of it as a career. He's always loved watching chess, but it's usually unprofessional games. When he finally sees a professional tournament, he decides to become an Arbiter and nothing's going to stop him.

Grandfather gets him a copy of the rules to become a FIDE Arbiter. With two years to go before he can apply, he starts working on the languages. He already knows four of them, but it couldn't hurt to learn them all.

 

 **interlude. Castling**  
At twenty-two, he becomes an FIDE Arbiter.

By the time he turns twenty-four, he's lived in fourteen flats and five houses, in sixteen cities on three continents; he can speak five languages fluently, use swear words and chess terms in eight, and recognize eleven. He's used twenty names since his thirteenth birthday, changing them on a whim, but he only thinks of himself as the Arbiter, no matter how far away from a chess board he is. He excels at his job. He loves his job. He loves his _life_ , as much for its lack of structure as despite it.

At twenty-six, he becomes an International Arbiter.

 

 **iv. Bishop**  
Merano turns out to be a nice place. Maybe, he decides early on before the matches start, he'll get a place there for a while.

Of course, the entire tournament turns out to be disaster. He rarely finds a chess player he can honestly say he likes, but he's never hated a single one the way he hates Frederick Trumper. The man is overemotional, temperamental, a complete bastard towards everyone, including his second (despite the fact that she is also his lover, and nothing is as despicable as someone who treats their partner in any sense of the word that way), and clearly a disgrace to the world of professional chess.

But Trumper is also _good_ , and though he's glad to announce Sergievsky the winner, he can't help but admire how Trumper plays. The man is a clear example of why letting emotion cloud judgment is one of the stupidest things a person can do.

 

 **v. King**  
Bangkok is the first time he gets angry on a job. Not because of what the players do on the board, or even strictly because of what's happening off of it. Manipulation will always be going on somewhere; it doesn't bother him much.

What does bother him is how emotion threw the game off. Chess is supposed to be calm. Peaceful. Tranquil, even. The high levels of stress are not the proper environment for a game of chess. And while Trumper always generates high stress levels, this is worse that he'd ever imagined it would be.

Let them play their game, he doesn't give a damn, so long as it doesn't affect his.

 

 **vi. Queen**  
After Bangkok, players don't get on his nerves quite so much anymore. You deal with the worst and the rest suddenly seems easier. He's grateful for that; it makes his job a lot more enjoyable, even if the high emotion still makes him want to laugh at them sometimes. His emotions are separate from his job; as soon as he sees a chessboard, he is the Arbiter, and nothing else matters.

Really, it's a pity he can't be by a chessboard all the time.

 

 **coda. Checkmate**  
Six years after Bangkok, and Florence Vassy is the only one still playing at a professional level. He can't help but admire her; her game has gotten better, and she's not a second any longer. Nobody who's played her doubts that she deserves to be on the circuit.

She doesn't speak to him during the tournament, but when he sees her afterwards, her smile is friendly.

"What's your name?" she asks him, before he can walk away.

He pauses before he answers, studying her, wondering if he should give the current alias or not. "I'm the Arbiter," he answers, and she nods as if she truly understands.

"But your other name?"

He likes that she didn't call it his real name, so he answers her honestly. "Simon Colonomos."

She smiles, accepted the gift that it is with a small nod of her head. "A pleasure to see you again, Arbiter."


End file.
